Real Time 4 (1982) C90

Here's the fourth one bringing with it an increased emphasis on dreamy (or otherwise) electronic instrumental work, which is no bad thing. Usual terms and conditions apply in regard to who the hell any of these people were, although some you may recall from previous volumes of Real Time. EG Oblique Graph, as you well know, turned into Muslimgauze shortly after, and this track was taken from his Tryptych 7" EP as issued by Recloose. Not having the record myself, it's all new to me, although I note with curiosity that the version some bloke has posted on YouTube seems to run at a different speed to this one, so I have no idea which one is correct unless it's one of those AMAZING RECORDS WHICH THE ARTIST SAYS YOU CAN PLAY AT ANY SPEED SO LONG AS YOU'RE FINE WITH HAVING YOUR MIND BLOWN!!!  I still don't know nuffink about the Ffuts except that they used to be called the Stuff, and I vaguely recall having a fanzine in which they featured and in which they explained why they took to reversing their name, but typically I flogged it on eBay. Oh well. Jung Analysts and Push Button Pleasure are both something to do with one Terry Burrows (pictured above). Paul Kelday, as I only just found out, is or possibly was brother to one of New 7th Music, so that's interesting. I remember his work turning up on a lot of compilation tapes back in the day, and it was always something worth hearing. I really should have picked up a couple of his tapes but never mind.

 

Don't have much else I can say about this one, except that some guesswork was involved in incrementing the tracks from side one, working out whether such and such a burst of funny noises were the end of one track or the beginning of another - that sort of thing - so if I got it wrong, sorry to those concerned, but you really should have started your tracks with a hearty 1-2-3-4 like a proper band such as Racey or Abrasive Wheels. Also, the Ffuts track is actually two tracks on the tape, running out and cutting off at the end of side one, then abruptly resuming on side two, and listed as parts one and two on the cover. This seemed a bit messy to me so I've edited them into a single piece as it's clearly all part of the same track.

Download the fourteen tracks and cover by clicking on this link.

Tracks:
1 - The Critical Disco Review - Sour Tangs
2 - The Critical Disco Review - The Nomads
3 - Sons Of Mavis - Poison Ivy
4 - Sons Of Mavis - 20/20 Vision
5 - Jonathan Rush - Jomar's Journey [excerpt]
6 - Vista - New Sky
7 - EG Oblique Graph - Black Cloth Behind De Gaulle's Wax Head
8 - Ffuts - The Nuclear Tribe
9 - Jung Analysts - The Shining Room
10 - Push Button Pleasure - Reproductions
11 - Paul Kelday - Worlds Apart [excerpt]
12 - Syd Nairda - Journey on the Motorway
13 - Syd Nairda - Sunset in the Desert
14 - Robert Cox - C352
 

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Real Time 2 (1982) C90

Here's another one, as per arrangements made t'other week. I don't know much about this lot either, except a few of them contributed to the previous volume. Research reveals that Gunslinger were based around one Alan Davey (pictured above) whom Discogs describes as the second-longest serving member of Hawkwind, so that's interesting, and perhaps accounts for why those two tracks are possibly my favourites on this tape. I'm fairly sure I saw Workforce live at the Green Dragon, Stratford-upon-Avon back in the early eighties - one of those sort of grunting funky Test Dept with a trumpet bands falling somewhere between Slab and Hula, as I recall, and very good too, although I suppose it might be a different band with the same name. In any case the internet doesn't seem to remember much about their ever having existed. Patrol were on the second A Country Fit for Heroes compilation on the studded leather No Future label, but that's about all I've found out about them. The Same was obviously Robert Cox, later of Rimarimba, and the man behind Unlikely Records who put out this tape. I assume he's probably also the man behind the track by Robert Cox.

A few of these are given here as [excerpts] because I couldn't be arsed to increment each individual thirty second snippet of something or other where artists contributed what sounds a lot like advertising for some album they were about to release, plus titling a single track as, for one example, The Black Box / We Care / Summary / Scenes of Today / Sandra / The Black Box as listed on the cassette cover struck me as cumbersome. Personally I wish they hadn't done this, because here, I've put together a montage of our best stuff for your compilation just seems to reduce the whole enterprise to advertising space, aesthetically speaking, regardless of some of that material sounding good; but, there's not much point in whining about it now, nearly four decades later, because each to their own, and admittedly the selection as a whole remains very, very listenable with plenty of surprises.

Download the twenty-four tracks and cover by clicking on this link.

Tracks:
1 - Swimming in the Sea - [excerpts]
2 - Workforce - Ten Fingers Only
3 - Jonathan Rush - Only a Nightmare
4 - David Rush - Laser
5 - Gunslinger - Someone's Got You in the Gunsights
6 - Gunslinger - Step into the Future
7 - The Blotchees - [excerpts]
8 - Extension-Two - [excerpts]
9 - Extension-Two - Extension-Two (Alone Again)
10 - Lurch - Real Time
11 - Robert Cox - A2 is Missing
12 - Patrol - SS Officer
13 - Patrol - Innocence
14 - Tom Cramp & the Epileptic Ducks - Cramposaurus Chant
15 - Tom Cramp & the Epileptic Ducks - White Stalk SB
16 - The Puush - Morning Rolls and Hot Coffee
17 - Suburban Storm Troopers - Switchblade & Crucifix
18 - Suburban Storm Troopers - Mau Mau
19 - Switch-Chord Roulette - Theresa
20 - Switch-Chord Roulette - Goliath
21 - The Same - Instrumental 7/3/82
22 - The Same - Auntie Meat
23 - The Same - Sampled & Held
24 - The Same - Sync or Swim
 
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Real Time 1 (1982) C90

Some Digital Dinosaurs yesterday.

I thought I'd run out of compilation tapes, having digitised all of those in my possession, then remembered that Robert Cox, the man behind Unlikely Records, had very kindly sent me digitised files of the volumes of his Real Time series which I hadn't already posted here. So these are tapes from the eighties which I've only heard this year for the first time, which is exciting. The two volumes I have in my physical possession were posted here and here,  and I'm sharing those links so as to avoid having to repeat myself as to what Real Time was all about.

I'm pretty much in the dark about most of these people. I recall the Digital Dinosaurs from back in the day, and it turns out they were from Coventry so I probably read about them in Martin Bowes' Alternative Sounds. There's a bit about them here, and I've just noticed that the excellent Mr. Zchivago has a shitload of material on his Die or DIY? blog. In Embrace were something to do with the guy from 3 Way Dance and Peter Becker of Eyeless in Gaza, amongst others, and I remember What a Nice Way to Turn Seventeen fanzine of Leamington Spa going positively apeshit over their album, from which I assume these excerpts are taken. I also recall Jonathan Rush from somewhere or other, and the Ffuts used to be known as the Stuff. I'm sure you all know who was behind EG Oblique Graph, and the Same was Robert Cox himself, which is why it probably reminds you of Rimarimba. I don't know anything about the rest, but hopefully you'll agree this is a nice little collection, full of surprises. Quite keen on the Emergency Exit tracks myself.

I'll post volume two in another couple of weeks once I'm back from my holiday in Airstrip One.

Download the twenty-eight tracks and cover by clicking on this link.

Tracks:
1 - Syd Nairda - Nevada
2 - Lurch - High-Steppin' Mamma
3 - Digital Dinosaurs - Sideways Man
4 - Digital Dinosaurs - Red Fire Engine
5 - Jonathan Rush - Synthasalsa
6 - Jonathan Rush - New Dawn
7 - Y Celfi Cam - Mab y Gweinidog
8 - In Embrace - [excerpts]
9 - EG Oblique Graph - Scar
10 - The Ffuts - Luscious Love
11 - The Same - 453-549
12 - Tom Cramp & the Epileptic Ducks - Die for Doggy
13 - R.J. Curd - [excerpts]
14 - Emergency Exit - Falling for You
15 - Emergency Exit - Voices
16 - Part Form - [excerpts]
17 - Future Future - Operator
18 - The Toy Shop - [excerpts]
19 - Extension-Two - Gaps
20 - General Motors - Tubular Turd
21 - General Motors - Live Wasp Omelette, Lung
22 - Piers of the Realm - Manic
23 - Someone Else - Something Else
24 - The Same - Set Zero
25 - The Same - Hot & Cold
26 - The Same - Larruping Shuftly
27 - The Same - If You Want To, Do So!
28 - The Same - Du Ma Casa
 
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v/a - Real Time 5 (1983) C90

This one was released by Unlikely Records in 1983, which was the organ of the above Robert Cox of Rimarimba, amongst others.

I seem to recall Real Time as a fairly regular series of compilation cassettes, and that Robert had a policy of including something by every hopeful who sent him material (although I could be wrong about that - it was a long time ago), which is why a few of these artists were a bit Alan Partridge, I suppose. Then again, musical history seems to have conveniently forgotten all those stonewashed jeans bands you used to see playing in regional pubs at Sunday lunchtime, usually with a cover of something by the Police in their set, and I suppose they deserve to be remembered as much as anyone.

Aside from the cod reggae, there's actually only really one band I disliked on here - MWAB who just sound a bit of a mess to me; but otherwise it's a surprisingly decent collection, plenty of variety and a few surprises. You may have come across UV Pøp, I'm Dead, and Sirius B - whom I'm sure I recall being the next big thing for a couple of days, at least according to Dave Henderson; you may even recall Len Liggins from this tape; and you'll possibly recognise the Attrition track from their Third Mind cassette. My personal faves would be by the Insane Picnic and the exceedingly proggy Trekellion Skyway, but not even Discogs seem to know anything about them, which is a shame.

Download the twenty-six tracks and cover by clicking on this link.

Tracks:
1 - UV Pøp - Superstition
2 - UV Pøp - Some Win This
3 - Faction - Realisation
4 - I-Jog & the Tracksuits - Optimism
5 - Chapter 29 - Before
6 - Chapter 29 - Silence Hammers Down
7 - Death Pop - Antichrist
8 - Death Pop - Walk With Me
9 - Kix - Close Encounters
10 - Len Liggins - Sandwiches
11 - Len Liggins - Lead
12 - Party Day - Party Day
13 - Sirius B - Is This the End?
14 - Sirius B - Chain of Thought
15 - Attrition - Onslaught
16 - Still Screaming DC - Holy Wars
17 - Innerpropriates - Bryn to Drym
18 - The Insane Picnic - Chaos Control
19 - Trekellion Skyway - Black Brook
20 - MWAB - Dirt
21 - MWAB - Mik Bum
22 - MWAB - Ooee Ooee Oo Song
23 - I'm Dead - Whispers
24 - I'm Dead - After Life
25 - Jonathan Rush - Horizons
26 - Jonathan Rush - Show Tonight

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